Telluride Film Festival 2011: No pass? Don't pass.

29 Aug Telluride Film Festival 2011: No pass? Don't pass.

"This festival (the Telluride Film Festival) is characterized by its small size and friendly atmosphere. If there were a few key words to describe Telluride, they might include 'intimate' and 'down home,' just as easily as 'monumental' and 'important," Boulder Daily Camera

Even without a pass, the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival, 9/2 – 9/5, has something for almost everyone.

The Telluride Film Festival opens with free films sponsored by Ralph and Ricky Lauren. The five film premieres start Wednesday night, August 31, just after dark  – and a day before the cat is let out of the bag about screenings on the long weekend to come.

(Thursday at noon, when the embargo is lifted, Telluride Inside… and Out releases four different posts about this year's Festival, interviews recorded live with Festival co-director Gary Meyer about the features, the tributes, documentaries, shorts and special programs and who's coming to town.)

The first film on the program is "Never Cry Wolf," with director Carol Ballard appearing in person.

Among Ballard's best known films are "The Black Stallion," (1979) and "Fly Away Home," which opened at Telluride in 1996.  "Never Cry Wolf" is an earlier project, from 1983, but its underlying theme about the ah ha moments that occur when man and beast go toe to toe in a good way echoes "Stallion" and "Fly Away."

"Never Cry Wolf" is an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Farley Mowatt about his life-changing experience studying wolves in Canada's north. Ballard turns the drama into a moving study of one man's courage and the majesty and mystery of nature.

The unforgettable adventure begins when green biologist Tyler (Charles Sheen) is sent by the Canadian government to prove that wolves are depleting the caribou herd. What he finds is a natural world in perfect harmony in which he becomes a tolerated outsider. Tyler learns survival skills from an aged Eskimo who saves his life and the rules of peaceful coexistence from a neighbor, who happens to be a wolf. The culmination of Tyler's journey is a run with the wolf pack. (Like the flight in a hand-built aircraft of the young girl in "Fly Away Home"?)

Thursday's film is "Michael Clayton," starring George Clooney as a "fixer" brought in to do what fixers do, rememdy the situation after a lawyer in a firm has a ernvous breakdown while representing a chemical company he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit. Clooney is Clooney in the film, playing a likable scoundrel with the usual insouciance like a latter day Jimmy Stewart. He is always worth the price of entry. Only more so in this case, since the price of entry is nil.

And while we are on the subject of the free films, here's a Big Tip: two Festival premieres Sunday night in Elks Park, both with water themes, both terrific films, according to Festival co-director Gary Meyers.

The FREE films take place in the Open Air Cinema or Elks Park, just across the street from the Courthouse.

Other Telluride Film Festival freebies include:
• The noon Seminars in Elks Park are free
• The "Conversations" in the County Courthouse (although passholders are admitted first)
• Filmmakers of Tomorrow programs
• Films at the Backlot, located in the Wilkinson Public Library

The Late Show Pass, the last film at each of two different theaters is a great bargain: four films for $40. (Keep in mind that individual film tickets cost $20 each.) Pick up your Late Show Pass at the Telluride Film Festival Hospitality Center @ Gondola Plaza, The Palm or the Chuck Jones (the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village) opening day, Friday, September 2.

All seven indoor theaters put individual tickets on sale 10 minutes before showtime if there are seats available after passholders have been seated. Best to try the larger venues: The Palm, the Chuck Jones and the Galaxy.

Visit Brigadoon during the Telluride Film Festival for a detailed handout of shows and tips or go to the Telluride Film Festival's official website.

"While most festivals offer sightings of filmmakers as well as films, the population of Telluride — festival and town — is small enough that the ratio of auteurs to filmgoers may be higher than anywhere in the world, The New York Press